Road tripping the "Natural State"

[Crappie Greg]

Got to spend a great weekend with the wife in the backwoods of hillbilly country, left the house early Saturday mourning around 4:30 and headed to the Richland Valley area in hopes of seeing my first Arkansas Elk, as daylight arrived so did the rain and this was quit worrisome because to get into Richland valley you must drive across the buffalo river, "no bridge" and the water was already a little deep, my wife was already worried a warned me I better not get her trapped in this place overnight, Lol!!!! Anyway got to see around 120 elk with lots of nice Bulls in the herds, they were shedding velvet and even got to see some sparring amongst some of the smaller satellite Bulls, wasn't able to take pictures because of the rain but boy what an awesome hidden spot along the buffalo, after the elk viewing and visiting with a local warden that was trapping hogs in the valley, we headed to Harrison to find a place to stay the night , we found this charming historic hotel that was 1926 and my wife just had to stay there, "she loves old places" , spent the rest of the day in antique shops, thrift stores and yard sales then drove to Jasper that evening to look around where we ran across a group of wild pigges, there were 4 sows with about 30 piglets, pictures are not so good because I had to use my cell phone and the lens on the binoculars , the next mourning were up early and headed for Boxley Valley to view Elk in this beautiful historic area, Boxley Valley did not disappoint, there were many small herds of elk out in the fields grazing, lots of beautiful old farm places as well, even ran across this banded Trumpeter Swan and a flock of hen turkey , great weekend trip and one I will make avian in the future, check out this great state it has much to offer!!!!